Am I Petty Quiz
How the Scales are Structured
Who Usually Takes This Test?
See How You Compare
Below is a preview of how scores are typically distributed across each scale.
Example Questions From the Test
- Let it pass unless the claim could meaningfully mislead someone
- Privately find it amusing without challenging them
- Offer a subtle correction so the exaggeration does not stand untouched
- Correct them publicly in a way that also displays what I know or have done
- Continue the conversation without changing my response habits
- Notice the imbalance but wait to see whether it becomes a pattern
- Take roughly as long as they did when I answer next time
- Make sure my next delay is long enough for them to notice
- Mute their posts temporarily while I sort out my reaction
- Stop liking their content and hope they notice the change
- Ask them directly if the post was meant the way I read it
- Share a pointed post of my own without naming them
Am I Petty Quiz - Description and methodology of the test
People who notice recurring friction, delayed replies, or a wish to even the score can use this petty quiz to examine their reactions. The Am I Petty Quiz offers a structured way to explore those patterns without reducing them to a fixed label. It can suit readers who want a questionnaire about everyday interpersonal choices and wonder whether their petty reactions affect what they do next.
What This Assessment Explores
The questions cover minor slights, uneven favors, delayed replies, online visibility, public correction, and the wish to make a point. They examine how annoyance shapes later choices.
Rather than treating pettiness as one identity, the assessment separates patterns, so this quiz lets you ask the practical question: how petty am I in particular situations.
The displayed dimensions are:
- Grudge Holding & Scorekeeping (0-15) measures whether slights remain active: Lets It Pass (0-5), Selective Scorekeeper (6-10), or Long Memory (11-15).
- Indirect Social Signaling (0-15) measures hints, silence, and visible online displeasure: Mostly Direct (0-5), Occasional Hints (6-10), or Signal-Heavy (11-15).
- Status & Vindication (0-15) measures the pull of recognition, winning, and comparison: Quiet Confidence (0-5), Point to Prove (6-10), or Public Vindication (11-15).
Together, the bands describe situational tendencies, not permanent character judgments.
Methodology and Scientific Basis
Each item presents a social situation with four response options, making this a quiz that asks whether you are petty through specific choices rather than an abstract trait. This self-report format asks respondents to choose likely behavior rather than rate an abstract trait.
The result organizes responses into three dimension scores, best read as a profile rather than a single verdict. It links answers to concrete choices in recurring situations, helping readers consider how petty their reactions may be.
The closest reference is the Pettiness Scale developed by Ng and Levy, which measures pettiness as a social tendency. This questionnaire is conceptually consistent with that work. Studies by Kim, Zhang, Norton, Marcus, Zeigler-Hill, Mercer, and Norris offer contextual comparisons about social exchange and spitefulness; they do not establish this questionnaire's reliability, validity, or norms.
Interpretation should stay specific to the situations described, with the quiz helping answer the practical question of how petty you are in recurring situations rather than reducing the result to a judgment. Mood, conflict, social desirability, and self-awareness may affect answers. The displayed bands are interpretive labels; read the profile as reflection, not diagnosis.
- Ng, Reuben, and Becca Levy. "Pettiness: Conceptualization, measurement and cross-cultural differences." PLOS ONE 13, no. 1 (2018): e0191252. 10.1371/journal.pone.0191252
- Kim, Tami, Ting Zhang, and Michael I. Norton. "Pettiness in social exchange." Journal of Experimental Psychology: General 148, no. 2 (2019): 361-373. 10.1037/xge0000463
- Marcus, David K., Virgil Zeigler-Hill, Sterett H. Mercer, and Alyssa L. Norris. "The psychology of spite and the measurement of spitefulness." Psychological Assessment 26, no. 2 (2014): 563-574. 10.1037/a0036039
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